Looking back on spring cleaning at Newport's Tredegar House

Spring cleaning is often a time consuming chore in our own homes, but can you imagine how long it would take to clean a mansion? The answer is: a very long time.

When the Morgans lived at Tredegar House, the spring clean would take several weeks.

'The Brown Drawing Room' in Tredegar House in the 1930s. For Royal Gwent Postcard Fund. Picture: Newport Museum

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Luckily for them, they had a whole team of servants and estate workers who would do this for them, while they left Newport and went to stay at their house in London, or with family and friends elsewhere.

They had such a large team of servants in fact, that some, such as the valet, lady’s maid and cook, went with the Morgans so that they had staff to tend to their needs while they were away.

'The Great Hall' in Tredegar House in the 1930s. For Royal Gwent Postcard Fund. Picture: Newport Museum

The housekeeper was left in charge to oversee the clean, and from the moment the family left the house it was all hands on deck.

Dust covers were thrown over the furnishings, chimneys were swept, carpets were taken outside to be beaten, and chandeliers were dismantled and cleaned before being returned to their fittings.

Tredegar House servants in the courtyard, between 1890 and 1900. Picture: Newport Museum

This massive project involved everyone who remained on the estate. Footmen were left in charge of polishing the silver and gold daily. This included smaller, less important objects such as cutlery, to more significant items from the collection, like the casket containing the ‘Freedom of Newport’ scroll and Godfrey Morgan’s sword, which were kept on display in the Great Hall.

Meanwhile, the maids had more complex tasks, such as making soap flakes for the laundry or lye from wood chippings. They even bleached the sheets with urine, before hanging them over lavender bushes to dry.

The clean was so thorough that not only was every hearth and fire grate scrubbed and polished, but every room was dusted and cleaned daily, despite the family not being there to use them.

Informal shot of servants taken in the 1910s or 1920s. Picture: Newport Museum

This standard of cleanliness seems to have been consistent with normal days in the house, as one laundry maid wrote in 1890: “My Lord has a clean tablecloth for every meal… Sometimes when he is alone we have 23 tablecloths in the wash in the week and when he has a lot of company we have anywhere between 36 to 40.”

Conservation work at Tredegar House. Picture: National Trust

The spring clean was not the only deep clean of the year either, as when the family went away for ‘the season’ in the summer months, a second deep clean took place.

Although the spring clean involved a lot of hard work, the servants had the small reward of enjoying the estate while the family were away, including using the boats on the lake which must have been a real treat.

Tredegar House. Picture: Caitlin Tinsley

Today, cleaning the house is still an important part of the National Trust’s conservation work, and the house and collections team at Tredegar House complete annual cleaning tasks every year when the house is closed.

Although they are a much smaller team, with the help of modern technology such as Hoovers and pest traps, they are able to maintain and preserve the grand interior of Tredegar House for visitors to enjoy for years to come.